There is almost no time to breathe or to make adjustments. In just one day, the IndyCar Series practice, classify and run in the gateway oval, where the race will be held almost entirely in night conditions. It is because of that the only free practice session It has compensated with an extended duration of an hour and a half the fact that the environmental conditions were not representative. For half the teams and drivers, who hadn’t tested on this oval in July, the session involved some guesswork and setup bets that yielded some interesting results.
In front of the table ended Josef Newgarden, the only driver to have repeated a victory at Gateway, with a fast lap of 178,774 miles per hour on average in the last few minutes. Despite the great equality of the session, with the 24 drivers separated by less than 6 miles per hour (eight tenths) and the first 16 by more than 176 mph, their advantage over the second classified was considerable by the standards of an oval: more than a mile an hour. The one who escorted him was one of his classmates, Scott McLaughlin, continuing his good feelings in the oval of this year in free practice sessions in which he led and always circled the front positions.
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With his future in the air after unofficially confirming that he will not continue in Andretti in 2022, the veteran Ryan Hunter-Reay set the third best lap of the session, ahead of two other men of noted experience like Graham Rahal and Scott Dixon. The Swedish drivers were also very fast in the first instance, highlighting the seventh position of Felix rosenqvist (both for his discreet season and for his usual deficit in ovals) than the sixth of a Marcus Ericsson who is getting more and more used to positions of honor. Usually, Andretti Autosport also positioned itself as a solid team in these daytime conditions, Alexander Rossi being the only team rider outside the top 10 that Pato O’Ward closed.
After the Mexican, second overall, he finished Romain Grosjean, who makes his official oval debut today. The French driver was comfortable and with optimal records from his second run on the track, and his mark of 176,608 miles per hour allowed him finish eleventh, four spots ahead of teammate Ed Jones. For its part, Álex Palou could only be 17th, with a best lap of 175,906 miles per hour. A result to improve ahead of the timed session, since it would make the Spanish start tonight in the last position, due to the penalty of nine places that he drags for the use of his sixth engine of the season.
The main aspect of the conversation revolved around the tire wear, which was more pronounced with respect to the previous year. These sensations that replicate to a lesser extent what was experienced yesterday in the Indy Lights race, where there were several punctures. Although Firestone tires shouldn’t cause as much trouble, the brand has acknowledged that its 2021 tires for this oval have been designed with the intention of offer greater degradation, and thus facilitate position changes in the race. All this, with a greater running distance, could even lead to additional stops. Qualifying (23:00 in Spain) will be essential to begin to trace these dynamics.